Market Moment

Sold at $220,000

Barrett-Jackson, Palm Beach, FL, April 6–8, 2017, Lot 681 VIN: KE181S613045

What in the world happened here?

by Jay Harden

I love the early Blazers, I really do, but spending $220,000 on one is simply over the top. Yes, we’ve seen sale prices steadily climb for the early Blazers, Broncos, and FJs over the past few years, but the climb started about as close to rock bottom as you can get. Seeing these first-generation off-roaders cross the block for $30k, $40k, and even $50k is growing more commonplace every day. But $220k?

Without having actually been in the room when this blatant disregard for return on investment went down, it’s difficult to speculate why at least two people absolutely had to have this truck. Although it’s the perfect color, has the perfect stance, is stompin’ around on some aggressive rubber, and has an LS under the hood, this is basically just a tastefully lifted truck with a late-model engine/tranny swap.

Sure, it has slick paint and a complete interior, but so what? Parts for these trucks are readily available and relatively cheap. LS motor swaps are a dime a dozen. This isn’t the first Blazer ever built, nor was it the last. It’s not original, obviously, and there’s really nothing in the way of extensive craftsmanship happening here. It’s a good, clean, bolt-on truck.

But at four or five times what I would have reasonably expected, this was very, very well sold.